1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing machine and an operating method thereof, and more particularly, to a washing machine and an operating method thereof in which it is determined whether a washing machine has a single laundry load or no laundry load at all based on the amount of laundry in a drum and the number of times of detection of the amount of laundry in the drum.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, washing machines are devices for cleaning laundry by supplying wash water so that the laundry can be soaked, dissolving a detergent into the wash water, and removing dust and dirt from the laundry. More specifically, washing machines rotate a drum including laundry so that mechanical friction or vibration between wash water and the laundry can be caused, and that dust and dirt can be easily removed from the laundry.
Washing machines remove dust and dirt from laundry by performing washing, rinsing, and water discharge operations according to wash settings input thereto. In particular, washing machines perform a water discharge operation by rotating a drum at high speed. During a water discharge operation, laundry may be entangled. Then, the eccentricity of laundry may increase considerably, and thus, a washing machine may be damaged. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the laundry load of a washing machine before a water discharge operation.
However, there is always a probability of mistakenly determining that a washing machine has a single laundry load, a regular laundry load, or no laundry load at all, and a mistaken reading of the laundry load of a washing machine is highly likely to result in damage to a washing machine. Also, conventional washing machines perform laundry amount detection and laundry eccentricity detection more than a predefined number of times, thereby increasing the time taken to determine laundry load and resulting in a prolonged washing time.